During Christopher Columbus’ early sojourn to the New World in 1492, he paid a visit to the Island of Cuba. Now consider the fact the nobody in Europe had ever deliberately sucked smoke into their lungs for pleasure, it must have been a pretty incredible sight for his sailors as they watched the indigenous ‘Taino’ people cutting up large leaves, which they called ‘Cohiba’ stuffing into a clay pipe which they called a ‘Tabac’ (Tobacco) and lighting it!


Like his announced discovery of the western approach to India, Columbus got this wrong as well. When he returned to Spain, he mistakenly announced that the leaves themselves were called tobacco and the name stuck.


And so it goes, Cohiba, true to its brand, is “Tobacco”, literally. If there is one Cuban cigar that is truly worthy of it’s name, it is definitely the Cohiba.


The brand, however, is not as ancient as its name might suggest, being introduced as recently as 1968. Cohiba cigars started life as a cigar favored by one of Castro's body guards and quickly became a favorite of Fidel himself. He was so impressed with these cigars that he asked Eduardo Ribera, the local artisan who originally created these fine cigars, to come make them exclusively for the President. Accepting the invitation he went to work in an Italiante mansion in El Laguito, a suburb of Havana, under strict security of Castros own guards.


The original Cohibas were maintained exclusively for diplomatic use and it wasn’t until 1982 that Cohibas became available to the public. Specifically, three types of Cohiba:
The Lanceros, the Coronas Especiales and the Panatelas.

The brand was expanded in 1989 to include another three vitoles (vitola: a word used in describing the shape of a cigar):
The Esplendidos, the Robustos and the Exquisitos.

This completed what the Cubans called ‘La Linea Clasica’
Significantly, five more vitoles were added in 1992, to celebrate the quincentennial of Columbus’ famous voyage, creating the `Linea 1492`: the Siglo I, II, III, IV and V.



The Siglo Range of Cigars